I had to edit my earlier post and delete the speaking engagement I had posted about the UVU Forum on Children's Literature that was supposed to happen in only two weeks.

I'm very sad about this. I've worked on putting on this conference with some of my colleagues for nearly 10 years now never taking a dime for any of our work. We do it because we LOVE children's literature and we want to help the writers and illustrators in this community along. However, because of low registrations (due to various reasons under the control of only UVU), UVU's Conferences and Workshops has chosen to take over and change the format of the forum. We (the actual conference organizers) don't agree with the changes, any can not support this conference any longer.

So this is my sad farewell to the UVU Forum on Children's Literature as we knew it.

I thought I'd share with you a little sketch in preparation for a picture book I'm working on illustrating. It's all about Penguins. So I've been researching, watching documentaries, printing picture after picture...and I must say, I've fallen in love with these little guys. Their lives seem so lonely yet so intertwined with each other. They live in a freezing, dark, desolate place, yet seem to play and actually have fun with each other. And it's probably just a human thing to do, but I almost see some real human traits in them.

In the book I need to show the parent penguin feeding the baby. The issue with this is when they feed, the parent looks like they are eating the baby's head. It doesn't look very nice. We'll see how that page goes.

I love presenting to wide-eyed excited kids (and parents) about illustrating picture books. It's so fun and easy to talk about what you love to do. I only hope when I'm done speaking, I've inspired SOMEONE to become a better artist, a writer, or just to read more books. Books are just a little gateway to a huge imagination. Here are some places I'll be speaking in the next couple of weeks...

I'm a freelance illustrator working in the children's book industry. I love kids and raising my own 4 children. They are the inspiration and the passion behind all I do in art and in life. See my website at JulieOlsonbooks.com